Artist Markus Moestue and his homemade velociraptor bike
Velociraptor Awareness Day
Apr 18
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
1.5 oz your favorite scotch
4 T. chicken broth
3 dashes of tabasco
~ Velociraptor Cocktail recipe
The term "raptor" refers primarily to birds of prey that primarily hunt large vertebrates such as eagles, falcons, vultures, ospreys, kites, buzzards and others. However, raptors are also a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs that flourished in the Cretaceous Period! These Dromaeosaurids share many features with early birds and may have had the ability to fly or glide. And though there are many societies devoted to the study and preservation of bird raptors such as the Scottish Raptor Study Group (which currently monitors 14 species of diurnal birds of prey, four owl species and the raven (adopted as a honorary raptor), today is also a day to educate one's self about these prehistoric "speedy thieves" and to integrate their quick and darting movements as well as the more fluid gliding movements of their modern cousins into your next dance session! 🦅 🦖
Raptors' Rapture
Apr 18th is Velociraptor Awareness Day as part of Velociraptor Awareness Month.
From the www.velociraptors.info site:
April is National Velociraptor Awareness Month! The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention, along with the North American Velociraptor Defense Association and the United Velociraptor Widows Fund, will be providing free velociraptor safety seminars at local Red Cross centers across the nation. Contact your local center for more information."
Besides other great tips, here are some essentials from the site, which you may not know:
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Velociraptors hunt in packs, and are known to form an equilateral triangle around their prey.
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Velociraptors can accelerate 4 m/s2, with a top speed of 25 m/s on open terrain, 10 m/s while wounded, and 10 m/s in indoor laboratories.
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Velociraptors can open doors, but are slowed by them. They can open an initial door in approximately 5 minutes, and will take half that time for each subsequent door.
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Velociraptors do not know fear.
From the American Museum of Natural History, another good source of information, we find that velociraptors are closely related to today's raptors (birds that hunt and feed on other animals):
"The more that we learn about these animals the more we find that there is basically no difference between birds and their closely related dinosaur ancestors like velociraptor. Both have wishbones, brooded their nests, possess hollow bones, and were covered in feathers. If animals like velociraptor were alive today our first impression would be that they were just very unusual looking birds."
See the fun-loving land velociraptor on a penny-farthing velocipede from artist Drew Northcutt for the dance cribs.
For recent news about the 2015 discovery of a flying cousin of a velociraptor "Zhenyuanlong suni" studied by a joint collaboration of Chinese and Scotttish scientists, click a real velociraptor velocipede by Norweigian artist Markus Moestue .
Toast or attract velociraptors today with a namesake cocktail made from 1.5 oz vodka, 4 T. chicken broth, and a 3 dashes of tabasco.
And know your escape routes.
